There's a great deal of talk about new technology, the next best thing, the latest and greatest,"the best digital camera," "the best editing software," and on and on and on... 

We've had meetings on these very things. What's new and what can I use? My own Digital Arts students can't wait to get their hands on the RED or Blackmagic cameras to make their films. Both are impressive cameras, but they're simply tools of the trade -- a means to an end. Too many of us think that if we can get the right tools, then we will be wonderful filmmakers. That's part of the whole. That's all good, but we're and they're missing the most important part of what we do as filmmakers and videomakers (and you know who you are). I tell people that I'm a filmmaker, but what I really am is a storymaker.  At the heart of every good interview, tv program, web video, and short and feature film is and should be a good, a fantastic story.

Too often we create interesting shots and dynamic editing, but there's little story beneath the razzle dazzle. Filmmakers would rather have audiences talk about the longest Steadicam shot they've ever seen or the impossible jib shot. Yet, it doesn't have anything to do with the story. (See the opening shot of The Player.)

Storymaking is about relationships, the conflict, the drama. It's about solving problems that seem insurmountable.  Not "will he get the girl" or "will she get the guy," but how do they do it. Not the ultimate goal of the hero (every protagonist should have one), but rather the journey of obstacles, failures, successes, and living life. How we live, that's the story of us.

Good storymakers should always be thinking about the human element, the human story. Too often we're aware of the director or the writer or the editor when we should be following and caring for the characters of the story. Not characters sitting around talking about what they're going to do, but going along with characters who do it, who challenge their very existence to reach a goal. To paraphrase Nike: Just shut up, and do it. A good story should have action, but not too much or too little. When we go to the movies, we want to escape from our hum drum lives to a story that moves us (it's called the movies, folks) and takes us on a roller coaster ride to make us cry, make us laugh, makes us scream, make us feel alive.

Some of us are writers, some producers, some directors, some editors, some gaffers (you get my drift). We need to tell people that we're storymakers, striving to be master storymakers, which will be a lifetime of work.